Springfield, IL... State Representative David Leitch (R-Peoria) is critical of the Recall Bill the Illinois House is voting on this week. Earlier this week, the House Republicans pushed a measure to allow debate on a real Recall Bill - HJRCA 10, which would allow for Recall of all State Elected Officials by citizen initiative.
Unfortunately, the Democratic Caucus overwhelmingly voted (along strict party lines) to keep HJRCA 10 bottled up in the Rules Committee, where the Speaker sends bills to die. Now, Rep. Jack Franks (D- Woodstock) has sponsored HJRCA 31, which would allow for recall of only the Governor by citizen initiative.
However, Leitch was critical of the proposal saying it is, "not citizen friendly. It requires petitioners to collect a monumental number of signatures within a short period of time and before even collecting signatures, they must come to the General Assembly and get approval from every legislative caucus to distribute petitions."
Under provisions of HJRCA 31, citizens would need to get 20 signatures of Illinois House Members (10 from each party) and 10 signatures from Illinois Senate Members (5 from each party). The citizen would then need to get 523,000 signatures (15% of the 2006 elecetion results) with at least 100 signatures from 25 counties.
Leitch said that he will begrudgingly support the measure, but wishes the Democrat-led House would allow for real reforms and not "reform-lite." Leitch went on to say that "HJRCA 31 is to real reform like free food samples at the grocery store are to a nice dinner out."